De Blasio leads in NYC Democratic mayoral primary; Lhota claims GOP

NEW YORK, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Bill de Blasio was leading in the Democratic primary to pick a New York mayoral candidate for the November election, but it was unclear whether he won outright.

It was unclear whether he had crossed the 40 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff Oct. 1 with William C. Thompson Jr., who finished second in the Tuesday party primary, The New York Times reported.

Early results indicated de Blasio, New York City's public advocate, won slightly more than 40 percent of the ballots counted but thousands of paper ballots hadn't been counted, election officials said. Counting could take days.

The winner of the Republican contest was Joseph J. Lhota, a former Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman, who bested billionaire businessman John A. Catsimatidis.

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